What is a Doctor’s Note?

A Doctor’s Note is an official document that details a physician’s observations, diagnostic results, diagnosis, and treatment plans for a patient. As a medical health record, doctor’s notes are protected and confidential as part of various patient privacy laws.

Hospitals, clinics, and private practice healthcare providers may create a standardized Doctor’s Note form for their institution in order to streamline their patient record-keeping process. This article teaches you how to create a Doctor’s Note template. Note that we do not offer tips on writing patient record notes since it is out of our expertise.

How to Make A Doctor’s Note

sample doctor note template

In the medical field, note-taking can have a considerable impact on the patient and his/her plan of care. The steps outlined below will help hospital administrators and managers create such medical clinic plans and notes that facilitate improved information dissemination within the healthcare team.

1. Start With the Patient Information

An effective doctor’s note form must include basic patient information like his/her name, gender, age, height, weight, and contact information. Start any nursing plan or doctor’s note template by adding sections where the physician may fill out these pieces of information.

2. Add Your Hospital Letterhead or Logo

Official branding elements like hospital letterhead template and logo designs add credibility to any medical document. When crafting your institution’s note templates, you may utilize your current logo or create a new one. Choose a logo design that best describes your hospital’s or clinic’s vision and mission as a healthcare institution.

3. Include the Physician’s Credentials

The physician’s credentials are often placed at the bottom section of a doctor’s note. If you are making a standard note form that will be used by all doctors in your hospital or clinic, you may create a form that asks for the doctor’s name, designation or title, and license number.

On the other hand, if you are making a doctor’s note for a private practice clinic, you may directly print out the physician’s credentials on the note template.

More business contact information like your hospital’s website, social media links, contact number, and email address may also be added in the footer section of the note template.

4. Provide Ample Space for the Actual Notes

A good clinical record should provide accurate and relevant information to the healthcare team. This, in turn, aids in the patient’s continuity of care and treatment plan.

And for a physician to fully relay all this relevant information, a doctor’s note should have ample space for the doctor to write on. Whatever the size of the note template that you choose, make sure that the actual notes portion is at least one-half of the whole page.

5. Adhere to Local or State Medical Privacy Laws and Regulations

As we have mentioned earlier, patients’ medical records are protected worldwide. Access to them is governed by state and federal laws. Likewise, the creation of doctor’s note templates should follow these regulations.

Whether you are creating printed doctor’s notes or electronic medical notes, always include verbiage about the document’s confidentiality. Explain to the healthcare team about this patient data privacy laws and the steps you can take to protect this essential right.